Shiraz Lane
Be The Change

12.05.2016

Every day a new band is born somewhere in the world. Of course, there is no official statistics on this matter, but every teenager has for sure dreamed of taking to the stage one day and winning over the crowd with his/her music, even if this stage is actually located in a school hall. For some this dream has come true, and a few of them keep climbing higher, where only the sky is the limit. Finland’s Shiraz Lane, who have recently released their debut album “For Crying Out Loud”, are a good example of confidence, talent and a bit of persistence making miracles. Your average boys next door from a Hensinki suburb are slowly but surely taking over the world. We managed to catch them in between their first show in the legendary Tavastia venue and their appearance at Frontiers Rock Festival in Italy. Frontman Hannes Kett, still a bit tired after the successful Tavastia gig, agreed to answer our questions, and we had a great chat at Ilves Bar not far away from Kamppi.

No doubt that you had a crazy 2015 and a crazy beginning of 2016. Can you name a few significant events and meetings that inspired you over this period of time?

I think it started in 2014 because we won the “Hard Rock Rising” competition. After that we went to Toronto and it was our first gig outside of Helsinki, then we went to Japan and we played in Germany at Wacken Metal Festival. We played some shows in Finland supporting Santa Cruz last year. We signed a record deal last year and the record came out last week. And yesterday was Tavastia, so it was fucking amazing!

You recorded your first LP with a help of Ben Varon, guitarist of Amoral. How can you describe the work with Ben in a few words? How was the process going on? What were your expectations from it, and what was it like in reality? Did you enjoy the process?

Ben Varon was really nice. It was very natural, because Ben is our manager’s husband and we had got to see each other many times but now we got to hang out with him. He came to our rehearsal space, listened to our songs and we worked at the songs together. Sometimes we worked on our songs alone and he was like. “This is not good”. Like it was with “For Crying Out Loud” - he didn’t like the new version of the song. It was really nice working with him ‘cause he is a professional and a nice guy. I’m really happy to call him a friend. He helped us with the lyrics a lot cause he is a great writer. I needed some help with some of the songs because I had so much to say but I didn’t know how to say it. It was really nice, and I could say the same with the guys. He did a great job. He knows the things that a normal producer does and he did all of that. We were really proud of that work.

What kind of gear did you use while recording “For Crying Out Loud”?

Actually, I don’t know (laughs) It’s the question for the guys. I just sang to my microphone and it was fucking expensive! (laughs)

Journalists and critics compare your first release to old albums by Guns N’ Roses and Aerosmith. What do you think about such comparisons? It might look like everyone is expecting too much from you. Are you afraid of ruining those expectations, or it doesn’t matter to you?

It’s a compliment, because these bands are great. People always wanna be close to the 80s but we don’t really care about how they call us. But there is no pressure at all because we love those bands so if they compare us with them – it’s awesome!

The initial cover artwork of your album looked like there is a concept behind it but after all you decided to change the cover. So what is hiding behind the cover art?

Our friend Chris Rivers from Heaven’s Basement came up with the painting. We had an idea, a vision,. we just took some notes and he came up with the sketches. We wanted it to be the cover of the album but it didn’t work out that way. It wasn’t in our hands but it’s all good ‘cause our faces are on the album cover now and I think our fans love it. We still got that painting in the booklet and this is important for us. And we got it on our shirts. Hey, all the fans out there, check out the album, read the lyrics and look at the artwork! (smiles)

Can you say that “For Crying Out Loud” was inspired by bands from the 70s and 80s? In which way?

Yes, of course. But it was inspired by life in general and by the world we live in and by the guys in the band. We inspired each other. And the 80s and 70s are inspired us as well.

Talking about dinosaurs of rock’n’roll, what is your opinion about the current Guns N’ Roses reunion?

Well, I don’t actually think that it is a reunion because not all of the original members are in the band now. Some of the original members aren’t there anymore but I still think it’s great.

I’ve seen some videos of Axl Rose sitting on his chair, do you like this?

It’s not that nice, but it’s great for rock’n’roll anyway.  

There definitely is a story in “Mental Slavery” and “For Crying Out Loud” videos, and it looks like there is a message to your listeners. What kind of story it is?

If you listen to the songs or read the lyrics then you will understand what I’m talking about. “Mental Slavery” is a song about people being slaves to the society. We think we are free, we’ve got this illusion of freedom which is bullshit. And the music video for “Mental Slavery” is about a kind of trying of break out form the illusion but at the same time the video ends with me getting back to where I started. In “For Crying Out Loud” things get worse like you can see with my makeup there – I’m looking worse than in “Mental Slavery” – and I’m still trying to break up from the illusion but at the end of the song I’m singing to the world, “Stand up and make a change! You can do this, we can do this, you got the power in you”. And then in the end of the video I break out and I’m in the kind of a heaven which means balance with the world. And this is what could happen if we get in balance with Mother Nature ‘cause as long as we rape her we will get shit in return. We will have children, grandchildren and… Where will they live? If we destroy our planet what will happen to them? What legacy will we leave behind us?

I wish that everyone could be as wise as you. But let’s return to our questions. As we know, you had a few recorded songs before, and they didn’t make it to “For Crying Out Loud”. Can we hope that you will someday revive them?

 I love “Story To Tell”, I love the story I wrote and it was really inspiring for me, ‘cause every time I’m feeling down I read my lyrics and I think, “Holy shit! I wrote this, why do I feel down?” but it wasn’t on the album because then we would have “Begging For Mercy”, “Story To Tell” and “M.L.N.W.”, three songs with the same color. I know that it’s a great song and while we recorded it we gave all we had and it was good enough. But we re-recorded “Behind The 8-Ball” and “Mental Slavery” because we thought that these two songs will fit the whole album.

How does the process of writing a song usually begin?

The world around just inspired us and everything that is happening around us as well. History inspired us as well, ‘cause history is repeating itself. There were so many things we’ve done and so many mistakes we’ve made and I can see that we are repeating the same shit. And the people we know have always inspired us. But when we write the songs it usually starts with an idea. I have the melody, I have some lyrics, or the guys have some riffs, Ana (Willman) has got some beat and we all have something to work on. We go to the rehearsal space and just start jamming around. Sometimes we start jamming without any intention of writing a song. This is how many of our songs started. We just start jamming around and it sounds good. It’s really weird ‘cause we’ve got some mental connection with the guys. I usually know which tune or note Jani (Laine, guitar) will play. And sometimes we are just like “Holy shit! How could this happen?”. The guys play some note and everyone knows which note is coming next. It’s like we are being one. And that’s why we like those songs because they sound like us. It sounds so pure. And we are not afraid to be different. We don’t want to write 2-minute songs for the radio, we want to write 6-minute songs because we want to tell a story.

It sounds like the songs go right from your heart.

They are.

But how “different” in your music will you never afford to become? Are there any limits for you?

I don’t think so. We don’t have any limits, but of course there are some… Let me explain. Talking about music in general, I don’t say that I hate some music, I just say I don’t understand it. For instance, I don’t understand death metal. I understand that some people love it but it’s the same with every music style. Some people don’t understand classical, some people don’t understand rock music, some people only listen to pop music but it’s not because a music style sucks, it’s because we don’t understand it. We believe in our songs, we don’t think about genres in general, we just write the songs and do whatever we want.

Every musician likes to hear nice words about their music. What kind of compliment do you want to hear from your fans or journalists?

We aren’t waiting for compliments. We just want our fans around the world to listen to our music and hopefully understand the message of peace, love and harmony. We are not here for the compliments, we are here for the music.

Did you notice any differences between the audience in your native country and in other countries? What kind of differences were they?

The audience is different everywhere. In Finland people are bit afraid to show their emotions. I’m a little bit different but it’s the Swedish side of me. And sometimes when they are going to the concert they need some beer to start to show their emotions. I don’t understand it. In Japan it’s fucking crazy. Walking down the streets in Tokyo it’s rude to look each other in the eye. I always do that because I think that’s how we get a connection between people but it’s rude there. They just don’t look at each other and in Tokyo, it’s like millions and millions walking down the streets just looking down. But concerning the gigs, it’s ok to be a fan there. When we came to the venue we already had a few fans there, like a couple of hundred and they were screaming, “Oh, guys, we want pictures!” and we were like, “Holy shit!”. When the gig started they were screaming like crazy but after the gig they just sat down and they were quiet, just played with their phones, wrote messages. They were sitting down at a fucking rock venue! But the next gig started and the screaming started again too. The fans there are really crazy. After the venue we went to our hotel and we went there with all the bands excluding Sonata Arctica – they went somewhere else – and there were like hundreds of fans waiting for us and we saw some fans from the venue. They were already there just taking pictures. We were there for 3 or 4 days and there were always a couple of fans just waiting for autographs at the hotel.

Speaking about touring, what countries do you want to visit in the near future?

I wanna tour the world, I wanna go to South America and see the fans there. I’ve heard they are crazy, like seriously crazy. If you check some Guns N’ Roses videos from South America and you see the audience, you will see that it’s crazy. I wanna see that, I wanna play for them! Tomorrow we are leaving to Italy and I heard that fans here are different as well. And we want to come to Russia. I need a repeating of the Moscow Peace Festival and I wanna play there! And if you think about the world there are some countries like North Korea. No one knows anything about that place. Every country has its own rules and regulations but I don’t believe in rules and regulations. I don’t believe in putting on limits in listening like “This is Finland, and this is Sweden, and this is Russia”. Who the fuck decides this? It feels stupid. I think the world is for the people not the leaders. That’s what about “Money Talks” is about and I will never stop.

What kind of gigs do you prefer the most – electric or acoustic, and why?

Both. I love acoustic gigs because I can sing different melodies, I can improvise a lot and I really love to improvise. I can just play with my voice. At electric gigs I don’t have anything in ears so I can’t hear myself. But anyway I know what I’m doing all the time, I can feel it even if I can’t hear it. It’s like you’re speaking but you can’t hear your voice. We had some gigs that I couldn’t hear anything and I was just like… (opening his mouth without producing any sounds) But I know the notes I’m singing. I can feel how I sound. And maybe one day we could record an acoustic album because why the fuck not? Acoustic gigs are more down to earth and we just have fans around us and very thing that I want is to hug them all. I love the connection and this is what it’s all about.

If you have five minutes to address the whole world, what do you want to say to them?

 If I have five minutes I will have to write a speech before that because there is so much to say and finding the right words is not easy. I think my main message would be as it is with my songs: “If you believe in yourselves, if you believe in us, in humanity, in life and love then you can truly be the change and make a change. It all starts with believing”. That’s why the religion began to work. It started with believing in something. Everyone needs to believe in something, it’s just calls something different. I believe in love, I believe in the Universe. There’s so much energy around us that we don’t see. I believe in that. Some might call it God, some might call it Allah but it’s all the same. I believe in us. I just want people to wake up and believe in themselves. You could see the people walking down the streets, they are just lost. Like I wrote in “M.L.N.W.”, “Look around you, what do you see?” There is so much beauty everywhere and we just don’t see it.

Can you imagine a situation that could make you stop playing music? What situation could it be?

No way. Never ever. There will always be some form of music. If I couldn’t sing… That’s scary! That’s why I take care about my voice.

What bands can you recommend our readers to listen?

There is a band from Kuopio called Block Buster. We love those guys, they are amazing! And of course, Lost Society. I think those two bands I can recommend because I don’t know so many bands, and these bands are pure, there is nothing fake about them, there is nothing fake about their image. They are what they are. Just like we are. We aren’t trying to be some bad boys with a “fuck everything” image like some people do. I hate that shit.

Are there any crazy things you have never done, but always wanted to do?

The list is so freaking huge but I don’t know how to start it. Let’s start it from something Finnish. There is something… It’s like you have a sauna during the winter and you go to the sauna and after that you go to the lake, and the lake is frozen…

I think I got it!

Yeah, I love that. But I want to see how my guys are doing that ’cause I don’t think that they had done it before. I’d like to skydive…with a parachute. There are so many things we wanna do. We wanna play the biggest festivals, the biggest stages, we wanna play on the moon. We wanna do everything!
 
Shiraz Lane on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ShirazLane/

Special thanks to Heta Hyttinen for arranging this interview

Interview by Elena “Lynn” Pavlova, Victoria Korpun
Photos by Elena “Lynn” Pavlova
April 21, 2016
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